What could be the consequences of unsatisfactory pre-elementary education?

What are the consequences of focusing on my education and not beginning my career until age 30?

• Consequences (positive or negative) meaning financial (long-term) and professional.

• Answer:

  Nathan Wolfson's answer is right on the money. This answer to this question is extremely complex. Before we discuss consequences, we have to segment the job market a bit. Careers with Licensing Minimums - Medical doctors and Veterinarians are the key example.  150 years ago veterinarians did not exist and doctors were quacks. Since then, they have done an excellent job of convincing the world that only people with an extremely expensive and arduous course of study can perform their profession - classic economic "barriers to entry" behavior. Age 30 is a minimum. Some specialties may require training until your late 30s. Careers with Academic Oversupply: Chemistry, Biology, Psychology, any sort of foreign language if you want to teach at a university level. PhD is "table stakes" The minimum to not have your resume thrown immediately in the trash. I have a brilliant Chinese friend with **TWO** PhDs, one from a Chinese university and one from the University of Texas and she is just scraping along on the very bottom rungs of the university career ladder. Law - Seems like a JD is the thing. Better go to a top school. Mediocre law schools are a waste of money. A few years ago I got to know a barista at a local Austin coffee house with a law degree from a mediocre law school... Accounting - For commercial purposes a masters of public accounting should be enough and shouldn't require you to study to age 30. On the other hand, if you think you have what it takes to be a professor at a business school, pursuing a PhD can be extremely lucrative. "Rising Star" junior professors at prestigious law schools can earn A LOT OF MONEY. Again, this track is only interesting of you can do your PhD at a top 10 accounting school. Note that failing on this track will not be that terrible. You will have some debt, but should be able to pay it off with a routine accounting job. Engineering / Computer Science - From an earnings point of view, anything beyond a bachelor's degree has a debatable return on investment. That having been said, those few that pursue a PhD and make it to tenured professor at a major university have fantastic earnings and a fantastic quality of life too. However, in an industrial context, a PhD and $2.66 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. On the other hand, trying hard to be a professor of engineering and failing would not be too bad. Again, the fallback to a "good" industrial job would pay quite well, Italian, French, Spanish, etc.. Literature - shoot yourself in the head. Get your BA and get out of the clutches of the money-sucking education racket that is saddling you up with debt that you will never be able to pay off. Human Relations, Gender Studies, XYZ Ethnic Studies, etc... Don't even finish your BA. Complete waste of your time and your money. Now, back to your question about about "Consequences" Licensing Occupations - There is no other way to do it. Sort of like Navy Seal training: as long as you can get into the program and can stick with it, rewards should be forthcoming. However, "failing out" part way through can leave you emotionally crushed and saddled with debt. Better be sure you can do it. Academic Oversupply Occupations - Similar to Licensing Occupations but with much lower likelihood of success....and lower salary too....a LOT lower salary. You had better absolutely LOVE the subject, because if you don't live and breath it 24*7 you will get beaten out by someone who does. Professional Occupations - (Law, Engineering, Compuer Science, Accounting) Basically only relevant if you think you can be a professor. If you are interested in being a professor, the risks of trying are not too bad. If you win great! If you fail, you fall back to a regular professional job and pay down the debt. Liberal Arts, Social Sciences - don't do it. Unless you are sure that you are in line for a Nobel Prize, you will saddle yourself up with a crushing debt and spend the rest of your life as a Walmart clerk trying to pay it off. Hope this helps! David Hetherington